Feminist group NowWhat?! Ottawa have developed a platform for municipal election candidates they say will make violence against women and LGBTQ+ people a ballot box issue.
The group outlines 11 policies for both mayoral and councillor candidates to adopt, which aim to make Ottawa a safer place for women and marginalized people.
Leighann Burns, a volunteer at NowWhat?! who helped draft the platform, and the executive director of Harmony House, a women’s shelter in Ottawa, said she hopes candidates will adopt the policies both generally when it comes to running the city, and specifically when it comes to issues like bylaws and infrastructure.
NowWhat?!, however, is not the first to push for gender equity and inclusion within municipalities.
In 2015, the City for All Women Initiative (CAWI) partnered with municipalities, women’s organizations, academics, and national organizations from across the country to create a guide on gender equity and inclusion.According to the document, the guide presents a flexible approach to equity and inclusion that is adaptable to the diverse structures, contexts, and experiences of municipalities across Canada.
“Municipalities are responsible for the quality of life of their residents. Addressing social inequities to ensure the inclusion of all residents is cost effective at a time of shrinking city budgets,” the document reads.
Burns said NowWhat?! hopes candidates will adopt its platform policies, which it believes will make Ottawa safer, more accessible, and more economically equitable.The group is asking candidates to address issues like women shelters, firearms, and gang violence.
“One consideration we ask candidates to commit to reviewing is the impact of women’s use of public transit during non-peak hours,” Burns said in an email.
NowWhat?! Ottawa’s platform calls on candidates to push for wider sidewalks, proper lighting, and safe public washrooms for better accessibility and safety for women and LGBTQ+ community members in the city.
The group is also asking for politicians to prioritize taxes with the aim to have “equitable and economically sound communities,” but Burns said NowWhat?! is in the process of refining the tax platform component.
The platform is the latest in a series of NowWhat?!’s focus on elections. In the 2018 provincial election, it hosted an all-candidates debate on the topic of violence against women. The group also plans to organize a mayoral candidate debate for the upcoming municipal election, where points from NowWhat?!’s organizational focus will be debated.
